


in which Derek has the Worst Luck, maybe

by maraudersourwolf



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Awkward Crush, Awkward Derek Hale, Awkward Sexual Situations, Awkwardness, Beacon Hills High School, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Nerd Derek Hale, Non-Supernatural Beacon Hills, Pining, Pining Derek, Teen Crush, Teenage Dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 02:42:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12807882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maraudersourwolf/pseuds/maraudersourwolf
Summary: Derek has a crush. He's doing all he can to hide his feelings. It's pretty easy, since Stiles barely seems to know Derek exists. Hook ups, a school project that's half their grade and teenage awkwardness puts his luck to the test.





	in which Derek has the Worst Luck, maybe

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time doing an exchange like this, hooray! I can't believe I finished an almost 7k work. I MADE IT. One of the best experiences I've had with my writing ever.
> 
> Also I am very thankful for my lovely beta that not only had to deal with the monstrosity of my mistakes, but also helped me get my shit together and put my big pal pants to finish this. Cara, you're a life saver ♥

Derek has a crush.

Laura insists that it stopped being a crush long ago and that he’s actually pining. 

He's very much not.

It’s just a very unfortunate and temporary crush.  
  
  
-

 

It wasn’t temporary.

  
  
-

  
  
Derek is fully aware that Stiles has a reputation. A very serious one, that has nothing to do with his flailing, how many detentions Harris gave him in the last month, or how many times he made Finstock scream his lungs out in the span of a week. 

No, it's a very sexual reputation. 

And Derek hates it.

Cora gives him shit for it, making fun of him in multiples ways every day. He can’t even be mad at her, it's her job as his sister.

Instead, he’s mad at himself.

Of all the people, he falls for a player.

  
  
-

  
  
Derek usually doesn’t space out. 

He hyper-focus. 

His mind doesn’t really wander around, it zeroes in on one thing and forgets the world for a while. A usually long while. A “someone needs to take me out of my trance” while.

But all in all he’s a pretty simple guy, who just happen to focus on important things.

Like a boy and his moles.

So when Stiles sat near him in Harris’ chemistry class, only caused him yet again to fantasize about how soft the pale skin splattered in beauty marks would be or about that he’s pretty much sure those moles can form some sort of constellation he can't yet decipher. 

So when he gets caught by none other than Stiles, who just arches a brow and sort of smiles, well. He can’t be blamed for face planting into his chemistry book and not taking his eyes out of it for the rest of the class. 

If he pretty much runs out of Harris’ class when the bell rings, he can’t be blamed either.

  
  
-

  
  
“So, let me get this straight.” Erica gets interrupted by Isaac snorting and Derek doesn't miss a beat before glaring him into submission. “Or as straight at possible, in your case. You got caught staring at him, he smiled and you just ran out of there?”  
  
Derek rolls his eyes. The cafeteria is packed with people, and he’d really rather not talk about it here, but he can feel the weight of embarrassment over his soul and he needs to let it out. The tip of his ears start to burn slowly at the memory, so he stabs the mystery meat on his food tray to make it easier. “What was I supposed to do? I got caught. That’s never happened to me before”

“And I’m really surprised by that,” Isaac lifts up his hand in a placate gesture when Derek tries to glare him into submission again. “Lets be honest, you aren’t exactly stealthy when you look at him. I’m pretty sure half the school at this point knows about how hard you’re crushing on him.”

Derek can feel his stomach churn and the blood leave his face. Was he really being that obvious? Could he be a love sick puppy, like Laura constantly told him he was? He looked at Erica and swallowed thickly, “do you– do you think he knows?”

Boyd bumped their shoulders together and smiled reassuringly  at him. “I’m pretty sure Stilinski has no idea why you look at him so much .”

“Yeah,” Isaac added, smiling cheerily at him, “he probably thinks you want to kill him with all that glaring and scowling you've got going on”

Derek growls, only making Erica and Isaac laugh histerically while Boyd snickers at his side. He starts trying to kick Isaac from under the table with little to no aim. The knot in his stomach eases little by little itself under the mixed laughs of his friends, the thought of Stiles slipping away from his mind.

  
-

  
His mom often tells him that when they were toddlers, Stiles and him were completely enraptured into each other. 

The kindergarden teacher could’t separate them without one of them throwing the fit or the century, gushing tears and snot all around. 

They shared everything, from lunchboxes, colouring books, toys, to even each others thumb to suck. Talia even says that neither of them would sleep at naptime unless they shared the blanket, a tattered one that belonged to Stiles’ long passed away grandma. Talia describes the teeny tiny foreheads pressed together and little fingers of both chubby hands strongly interlocked so the other would not go away while they slept.

She likes to laugh and make a huge fuss over the memory of little Stiles asking Derek to get married in a flourish of sentences that held little to no sense and went from "mom said you marry someone you really like" to "you like chocolate chips too". All that sealed with a green ring pop. Her favorite part to tell is little Derek coming back home wearing a face splitting smile with his hand full of ants ‘cause he didn’t want to eat the candy.

She likes to say that in that moment she thought they were going to be a pair for the rest of their lives, as they always got along so well. But after that she smiles weakly and talks about the day Derek came running up to her with tears falling down his little face while he rambled about how there was a new kid, that Stiles had another best friend. Scott, the name of the thief. Scott, that had a ring pop too, but instead of green it was blue. And Derek hated blue. Derek hated Scott too. Derek also hated Stiles.

“And that was the moment,” she says smiling again, “you learned how to scowl”

“And it ended up being his default setting,” Laura always adds. And Derek always scowls back.

Maybe his feelings were from some weird attachement to those memories. Maybe he’s still not letting go for some strange reason he can’t figure out.

But he will.

Eventually.

  
-

  
To this day, blue always makes Derek feel a bit sad.

  
-

  
Derek has tried to pinpoint the exact moment he started to feel things for Stiles. Serious things, not just a childhood crush. 

But he can't. 

They barely even speaked now. Once or twice while handing over papers for Harris’ class. There was that time Stiles asked Derek if he could copy his homework for chemistry. But besides that, they barely looked at each other. Or better said, Stiles barely aknowledged Derek's existence.

But Derek's pretty sure that he doesn't need to see Stiles to know he's in the room, because he can feel the air gets sucked out of his lungs. He gets a little bit dizzy every time. He's not proud of the fact that he somehow trained himself to find the constellations on Stiles' face or recognize his messy brown hair in a room full of people. He's not happy to admit that he can spot Stiles' snorting laugh between a million of others.

Every time Derek sees on him, it’s like a sucker punch right to the gut. The world under his feet swaying to Stiles' direction.

Derek always wonders if that's how a crush is supposed to feel or if he's just being his abnormal self like usual. If the swirl of emotions that he can't control is something that you're meant to expect. If the ache in the middle of his chest every time Stiles pass by is totally okay.

If getting this heartbroken for someone that barely spares him a glance is not being totally insane.

  
-

  
Derek would like to say that life isn’t full of surprises, but the very next day he has to swallow down his words.

“Yo, Derek!”

He also would like to say that accidentally hitting your head on your locker when your crush says your name is a rom-com cliché, but here he is doing that exact same thing.

He lets out a string of curses and looks over at Stiles after, who for a moment winced sympathetically at him. But soon his lips had a very clear mocking smile on them. Just great. Leave it to him to be mocked by his crush.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t think I could actually scare you.” Derek rolls his eyes trying to ignore the warm feeling in his cheeks. He looks back into his locker, distracting himself enough searching for the book he needed for Harris’ class in hopes of Stiles going away so he can die of embarrassment in peace.

But Stiles is still there, shuffling his feet in what seems like an awkward demeanor. It's pretty obvious at this point that he isn’t going anywhere. Derek sighs, willing himself to stay calm. “I’m not letting you copy my homework, Stiles. Not again.”

Stiles gapes at him, taken aback. “Dude, that was just one time! Who do you take me for?,” Stiles sighs and looks away for a couple of seconds, mumbling something low enough that Derek can’t catch any of it. “I’m here for, y’know–,” he flails his hands in the air as if by doing so he can conjure up what he needs and make Derek understand. 

It’s not working.

Derek frowns and closes his locker, finally focusing his entire attention on Stiles, who’s distractedly biting his lower lip while looking back at him. Derek looks immediately away, focusing on a spot of wall over Stiles’ left shoulder, feeling the tip of his ears get warmer. “What do you want then?”

“Harris’ new project. It’s supposed to be in pairs. Scott ditched me for Allison and Lydia just–,” he stays silent for a couple of seconds just looking at Derek, who felt a summersault on the middle of his chest that he couldn't control. “I know you probably already got a partner but–”

“Sure, let’s do it together,” Derek looks down at his own feet and coughs awkwardly, embarassed at how quickly he answered to a question that actually never got asked. Erica would laugh so much at him. 

When the silence stretches on for a little bit more than what he’s comfortable with, he looks back up just to find Stiles beaming at him. He chokes on his words. He isn't ready for this. He is too weak, Laura’s right. He might die right now because of feelings.

“Dude, you’re awesome!," Stiles fiddles with the straps of his backpack and bounces on the ball of his feet a couple of times before starting to walk backwards, "I’ll see you in class, okay?," Stiles scrunches his nose into a smile and quickly leaves.

Derek stands in there, replaying the whole interaction between them. Trying to decide if his luck is rotten or if it’s getting better, until the bell rings.

He decides that he doesn’t really care.

  
-

  
“So now you’re pairing up for Harris’ class,” Erica raises an inquisitive eyebrow at him in a very Boyd way. Maybe they're spending too much time together. Maybe he should check that. Possibly later. 

Derek jerks his head in a solid nod, without breaking eye contact nor saying a word. Erica’s only response is an thoughtful noise, then silence. Derek looks at her intensely. Maybe she finally understands, after countless  jokes at his expenses.

Erica shrugged, “I don’t get what the problem is.”

Or maybe she doesn’t.

“Maybe the problem is that he’s going to be too awkward around him, is that right?,” Isaac grins. Derek scowls, making Isaac’s grin grow wider. “I mean, between the brooding, the killer vibe and the awkward, I’d be pretty worried too”

“I’ve seen you with McCall, honey, and I don’t think you have much to envy in the awkward department,” Erica grins at Isaac, who goes from zero to beet red in a second. 

Derek snorts really loudly, getting a strong kick under the table by Isaac. Wich starts a somehow small but heated fight of kicks under the table which quickly escalates into a sort of food fight. The frowns and scowls quickly forgotten, being replaced by gasps and laughs.

A firm hand grasps his shoulder. Boyd smiles reassuringly at him and Derek smiles back. There's no need of words. In between pieces of peas and carrots is a really clear message that isn't hard to get.

Everything is going to be okay.

  
-

  
He's wrong. For everything he holds holy, so wrong.

Derek shuffles awkwardly in front of the door to the boy’s bathroom . There's a voice in there. A voice he knows, that makes him stop dead on his tracks. Stiles' voice. In there. Lower and raw.

“I thought you were gonna touch it, dude,” Stiles giggles, in a way that gives Derek chills. “I got excited for a moment”

Derek swallows, his fingertips barely touching the door as if trying to open it but without actually doing it. He just needed to clean his hands. Stiles couldn’t– how bad could his luck be? Just wash his hands. In and out. Stiles can’t be–

“Dude! I’ll touch it when I please.” and that was Scott’s voice, a whisper that turned cold Derek’s blood. He watches the door for a second, unable to think besides what's probably happening behind it.

Isaac brings him out of his stupor. "What are you doing? I thought you were gonna clean up" 

A very loud gasp from the other side of the door is enough answer. Isaac winces visibly, recognising the voices too. Derek whines, scrubbing his face with both hands. It is decided. His luck is definitely rotten to the core.

"Derek, just--," Isaac sighs, pushing him gently away from the door, "let's just go, you can clean up later." 

Isaac turns around on his heels and heads back to the lockers, Derek dutifully follows behind. He could wash his hands another time.

He wishes he could wash his memory too.

  
-

  
Derek's pretty sure that perhaps he had dreamed both incidences with Stiles. 

Almost a week had passed and Stiles hadn’t changed how he interacts with Derek . At all. So when he walks into the chemistry room and Stiles smiles openly at him, waving to get his attention and make him go and sit at the same work station, well.

Maybe Derek now can add delusional to his own traits.

Derek slowly looks around, trying to spot Scott or another of Stiles' friends. Perhaps even Lydia. But nope, everyone is already seated, and he is alone in the doorway. Just him. By himself. Looking at Stiles, who is still waving at him to go and sit.

Derek takes a deep breath and walks towards Stiles. 

“Dude, you’re late. I thought you weren’t going to come or something. I mean, you, getting late. That’s something I believed wasn’t ever gonna happen. Me? I get here late every time, but you. There hasn’t been a time you haven’t been here early, reading or something. I thought that maybe you were having second thoughts about doing this project with me or maybe you got sick or you got sick after getting second thoughts, I don’t know. And I’m rambling. Sorry, I just panicked. I just– yeah, no, okay, sorry. Shutting up now. Sorry,” Stiles makes a zip motion over his mouth, smiling up at Derek, who stands there baffling by how many words came out of that beautiful mouth of Stiles in just mere seconds. Stiles pats the chair at his side. “Here, you can sit. I saved this place for you.”

Derek finally manages to smile awkwardly and sit down. He opens his mouth, ready to say something, when Harris closes the door soundly and begins the class without preamble. So he just smiles once again and looks straight to the front of the classroom.

Derek would like to say that that was it. That his focus stayed completely on Harris, that he was the model student his sister always joked about.

It’s very far from the truth.

Instead he keeps stealing sideglances at Stiles, who’s biting the back of his pencil or the side of his fingers. Stiles, who’s sucking on his lower lip almost constantly and lets out little huffs everytime Harris starts talking again.

Derek would like to say that having Stiles by his side isn’t really a problem.

But that would be a blatant lie.

  
-

  
Derek grunts, frustrated, flopping down in the grass. Today is one of those days Erica decided that she wants to sit outside instead of in the cafeteria.

“What’s wrong, loverboy?,” she asks patting Derek in the back without actually lifting her eyes from the magazine on her lap. He huffs, too frustrated to even argue with her that he is no loverboy and has no intentions into becoming one. “Tell momma what’s happening.”

“I’ll fail Harris’ class, that’s what’s happening”

Erica lifts her gaze towards Derek, frowning, “What? But Stilinski is really good at chemistry, he always gets As”

“That’s not the problem,” Derek scowls, “it’s Stiles himself. He’s so-- so-- so Stiles. I’m going to fail and it’s going to be his fault”

Erica snorts, making a huge effort to not laugh and failing. "So you're telling me that he's distracting you just by existing?" Erica finally cracks up and laughs. Derek’s scowl deepens even more, if possible. "I'm sorry, it’s just you can't really blame him because you find him really pretty and want to kiss him stupid"

Derek sighs, finally relaxing and letting his shoulders sag. He spots Stiles a few feets away, laughing with Scott. Erica sympathetically pats his back again. 

He's so screwed.

"There goes half my chemistry grade"

  
-

  
If there are things Derek could avoid reliving again, the locker encounter with Stiles would be high on the list. 

"Derek, my dude! There you are!"

But then again, life happens to enjoy laughing at his expense.

Derek accidentally hits his head on the locker door and growls, frutrated. Maybe Stiles does this on purpose, some sort of really dorky way of making fun of him or something of the sort. When Derek turns around, visibly pissed, he's faced with Stiles looking at him in awe. Intensely looking at him.

"Dude," Stiles breaths in, and Derek can feel goosebumps rising on his skin, "did you just growl?"

Derek can feel his face get warmer with each passing second. By now he probably looks the same shade of red as a lacrosse jersey. If this kind of things keep happening, he's pretty sure he’s not gonna survive.

He scoffs, looking around at anything that can divert his focus enought to subdue the blush. "Did you need something?"

"Oh! Yes, yeah, okay. I was gonna ask you if you had something to do after classes are over?" Stiles looks at him intently and Derek can feel the heat conquering every patch of skin on his body, "Are you? Free, I mean. After class," Derek purses his lips and jerkily nods, unable to muster any word without losing the tiny bit of dignity he still has. "Great! How about we met in the chemistry room? For the project? Harris' class? Are we still up for that? You haven't bailed on me yet?," Stiles smiles, wide and jokingly, but Derek notices the way he rocks on the balls of his feet in a rather anxious way.

"We're still up for it," Derek croaks out, trying to not sound over excited, "Chemistry room then? After class?"

Stiles' smiles looks more sincere now, warmer. He nods eagerly at Derek and turns around, starting to leave. Halfway though he stops and looks at Derek kind of embarrassed. 

"See you later, dude," Stiles lifts a hand halfway before turning around and leaving.

Derek sighs. Somewhat exasperated, somewhat relieved, completely lovingly.

This is going to be a long project to work on.

  
-

  
At this point, Derek's not sure how his luck is working anymore. Or if it's working at all.

Classes ended way earlier than what was supposed to and Stiles was nowhere to be seen. For a brief moment he wonders if perhaps he was getting bailed on . He huffs, trying to ignore the nagging idea, and strides directly to the chemistry room.

He texts Laura on his way there in a faint attempt to divert his mind, while he comes up with an idea of what to do while he waits.

On the days he has extra curricular classes, he usually likes to spend the minutes prior to it in the empty classroom, reading. Just that, reading. And maybe he can do the same now, while he waits for Stiles.

In what’s supposed to be an empty classroom. 

Which is very much occupied.

“Are you even into this as much as I am?,” Derek hears Stiles whisper. Or better said, breathes out from inside the room.

Derek stops dead on his tracks, right before opening the door. Is that really Stiles though? Maybe he is mistaking him for someone else. Hopefully he is. A breathy laugh reaches his ears and he winces. Yep, that's very clearly Stiles’ voice. 

How unlucky could he be to encounter this kind of situation. 

Again. 

A faint affirmative sound in a very high pitched voice follows from the inside. Derek’s sure he knows that voice, but can’t pinpoint exactly who it belongs to.

“Look at that Lyds, it’s leaking,” in the same breathy yet somewhat excited way was everything Derek needed to come out of his stupor. Nope, he isn't doing this again, thank you very fucking much. 

He scrambles out of the front of the classroom’s door and furthermore the school, going directly to his house without sparing a second glance. 

Harris' project be damned.

  
-

  
When he finally gets home, he walks directly to his room and shuts the door. He's too tired, too frustrated. There's knocking at his door, but he ignores it. Eventually, it stops.

After a while, he decides that he needs to redirect his mind into a safe place. And what's safer than numbing his mind doing homework? So he starts to write down the project. The self deprecating thoughts ceasing bit by bit.

He wishes the stinging feeling in his chest would stop too.

  
-  


Sometimes, the idea of an  uneventful breakfast is really appealing. He's lulled by the scenario of his house being as dull as any other house in town. He sighs, tired. He should actually feel bad for desiring that. He has loving parents, a family who cares about him and a well accomodated life. 

Cora snaps him back to reality, stealing his toast for the third time and continues talking.

“It’s just like how it happened with Paige– OUCH!,” Laura slaps Cora in the back of the head like she usually does when Cora is being either rude or insensitive. Or both. Which is most of the time. So there’s quite a lot of slapping.

“It nothing like Paige, Der-bear,” she smiles at him sweetly and looks back at Cora. Glaring is definetely a trait of the family. “Nothing like Paige at all.”

“Well, it is," Cora glares back at her sister, shamelesly, "He’s pining. And when he finally decides to do something about it, things will be over before they even started. Paige left. Stiles will get with Lydia or who knows who at some very near point if he isn’t already. And Derek will be scowling eternally into oblivion. See," Cora points at him, looking at Laura smugly, "he’s already doing it.”

Derek huffs, trying to pretend that he’s not scowling at all but it is rather impossible. The scowl is already there. The same as the self-doubt and the terrible feeling that Cora’s actually right, but he isn’t gonna say it. What kind of brother would he be if he did so?

“I’m not pining,” he takes another toast with the false pretense of actually taking any breakfast. His stomach has gotten itself into knots just like it does every time   when Paige was mentioned. The memory of forevers that turn into never haunts his mind.

“You’re right, you’re not pining," Cora snorts, taking the new toast Derek has on his plate, "You are already planing the name of your babies. Are you gonna take his last name or is he gonna take yours? Or maybe combine them both. You should tell us, so we can print it properly on the wedding invitations,” the smug smile on Cora’s face is all Derek needs to decide he isn’t eating any breakfast today. He gets up, walking away from the kitchen. The new slap in the back of Cora’s head like a never ending morning soundtrack.

Derek should feel bad for wishing a different life.

But he doesn't.

  
-  


It turns out that avoiding someone at school isn’t as easy as movies make it look. Or maybe he’s just really bad at it. How come that when he wants to find someone, it’ rather impossible, but when he wants to avoid them, suddenly they're everywhere ?

Maybe strategically reading a book in an empty classroom isn’t his best plan, but it’s working. And that’s all that mattered.

“Stilinski has been searching for you,” Derek grunts with his eyes forcibly glued to the book in front of him. Nope, it’s still too early to deal with his problems. He idly wonders when Boyd noticed that he snuck into the empty classroom. “He’s been searching for you since yesterday afternoon,” Derek lowers the book enough just to be able to look at Boyd, biting his lower lip. “He asked me for your number.”

Derek tries to make a nonchalant sound, that just ends up sounding like a small whine. Yes, maybe he was avoiding Stiles but knowing that he was searching for him made things rather different. Derek scoffs at the knowing smile on Boyd’s face and gets his attention back on the pages of the book. “How did he even get your number in the first place?”

“I suppose McCall gave it to him or he took it from McCall’s phone,” Boyd shrugs.

Derek finally closes the book and looks at Boyd, who's looking right back at him expressionless. A small tug at the side of his lips is the only response he gets. Derek tries to pinpoint who’s exactly a worse influence into one another, Erica or Boyd.

“I suppose you panicked an left,” Boyd walks to his side and sits down without asking.

“You suppose wrong, he was with Lydia and– wait, why do all of you think I just panic and run?,” Derek turns to Boyd, who just looks at him intently.

“Because that’s what you do when crush boy appears,” Boyd crosses his arms smiling. Derek frowns, ready to respond, when Stiles comes into the room. Boyd’s smile widens. “He also may have been following me around”

Before Derek can even attempt to run, Stiles is in front of him looking somewhat embarrassed and frustrated at the same time. “You weren’t here yesterday”

Derek looks at Boyd, who’s starting to leave. What a friend, sending him out to the wolves. He looks back at Stiles, gaping until he finally composes enough to smile shily back. “I, uh– had to– something came up, I had to go. Sorry.”

Stiles squints at him and for a moment Derek thinks that he probably saw throught that crappy excuse. Laura was right, he can’t lie for shit. But then Stiles sits down and takes the chemistry book out of his bag, as if this was supposed to happen all along and Derek feels equally guilty and relieved for not being called out on his shit. And then it happens. Suddenly Stiles looks at him and whatever Derek thought he was gonna say or do gets lost at the sight of Stiles smiling openly at him, as if they just shared the best of the jokes. Derek breathes in, suddenly overwhelmed.

“I– I actually did some of the work alone,” he confesses.

Stiles nods once, as if he already knew or expected it. His smile not faltering one bit. “Well, lets just hop into it then, dude”

“Don’t call me ‘dude’,” Derek scoffs, taking his bag and searching for the stack of papers he was working on last night.

“Whatever you say, big guy,” Stiles smiles at him, somewhat fondly. And it’s pretty much everything Derek can do to keep himself composed.

Derek’s sure that he isn’t going to survive this.  


-  


After the whole work after school thing gets pretty much forgotten and weeks passes by, Derek realizes that his life falls into a rather pleasant routine.

Neither him nor Stiles seem to notice, but the project so far had developed from a partnership to a sort of friendship that Derek isn't ready to let go any time soon. His mom is constantly talking about Stiles and asking how he's doing, for fuck sakes. Even Cora. And Stiles has admitted that the sheriff once or twice wanted to invite Derek for dinner.

And deep down Derek knows.

He knows that by now, he’s far too damn close. Failing the project by now is more of a joke than a reality, but Derek's pretty sure that he’s gonna fail at keeping his feelings at bay.

After all, he can no longer care about getting caught watching Stiles’ quirks. From the way he flails when he gets surprised to the way he squints his eyes and scrunches up his nose when he’s judging someone. Even the disgusting way he eats curly fries is endearing. 

But now there’s something else. It’s not just the infatuation of a crush, no. It’s not just seeing someone from afar and thinking how pretty the light hits on their features or how breathtaking the way they laugh is.

Now Derek knows that sometimes Stiles flails non-stop or sort of spaces out because his ADHD is having a bad day. He knows that Stiles sometimes has panic attacks and that he’s pretty jittery and craves affection when the high goes down. He knows that Stiles wants to cry everytime he talks about his mom, but he wants others to remember her too. He knows how jealous Stiles gets because Scott spends almost all his time with Allison, but deep down that jealousy turns into something even more disgusting and Stiles is just plain afraid of being alone.

Derek’s often hit with the sudden urge to cuddle him, craddle his fingers through Stiles’ hair and tell him that everything is alright, that he’s not going to be alone ever if it’s up to him. 

But he knows he can’t indulge himself. Most of the time, he tries to ignores those feelings. It’s not appropiate. He shouldn’t even think of those things right now. Because when the project is over, they’ll surely go back to their old routine where Stiles doesn’t look his way and he’s left with a handful of feelings and memories that he doesn’t know how to cope with.

Like it happened with Page.

Like it will happen now.

He's just waiting for the ball to drop.

  
-

  
Derek is pretty sure that finding Stiles in situations that pretty much required to saty hidden it’s some kind of trial life keeps giving him. 

But it’s been months since anything of the sort happened. And Derek is so fucking glad for it; he gets to keep his sanity and heartbreak at bay like he's supposed to.

But as for now, maybe life has decided that it wants a vacation, leading Derek into a fake sense of security and now it decided that time is up, Derek has enjoyed himself way too much and of course things had to go back to the normal. Which rude.

Maybe it's his fault too. Who in their right mind would decide to hide from Erica in the lacrosse lockers room? It's supposed to be empty. But Derek has a history with what should be empty spaces turning out to be occupied, so he should have known better.

He’s pretty sure that at this point, he’s perfected dealing with this kind of situations into fucking art.

He groans almost silently, scrubbing his face. This isn’t happening, right? This can’t be--

“Danny, look at how it is today,” Stiles gasps and Derek can only think that there is no way that isn’t a pronographic sound, “It’s fully up today!”

And that’s the dreadful moment Derek was trying to avoid. He sighs, looking around. He’s on a very dirty floor of the lacrosse locker room, hiding from Stiles and Danny while they are going at it. But he’s mostly hiding from Stiles. Because heartbreak and all that jazz. And he just wishes he could go deaf for a while and teleport somewhere else. Or in a more realistic instance, for the coach to come and put a stop to this madness, even if it meant getting caught.

“Oh man, if that went in...,” Danny gasps and Derek can feel his insides turn upside down multiple times until his stomach is pretty much settled in his throat. He closes his eyes and tries to go to a happy place. With puppies and rainbows and bunnies. A place where Stiles is definitely not doing anything of the sort with Danny. Derek sighs, getting his hands on his own hair and pulling slightly. He wants to believe this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t--

He hears a rustle of what he supposes is clothes, not really near but neither far away. Maybe he can stealthily run out of there, before everything else happens and his brain is marked for life or before his mind slips into insanity. Whichever comes first. Then there’s a whine.

“I’m close, I’m close, I’m close,” Stiles keeps repeating in a whispered flurry that   ends up merging into a low grunt and that’s it. Derek is now officially screwed for life. He’s equally mortified and turned on. Then there’s a choked breath, “I’m in-- I’m in Danny,” like Stiles can’t quite believe it.

And nope, that’s it.

Derek closes his eyes, asks for every god, entity, even luck itself to help him get out of there without being seen nor fall in the process and and he just goes for it. 

He’s pretty sure he hasn’t been happier in his life than in the moment he reaches for the door and escapes.

  
-

  
Maybe avoiding Stiles isn’t the best of ideas.  _Again_ , his unhelpful brain supplies, avoiding Stiles  _again_. But Derek is not really the best person to come up with rather witty plans.

So when he spots Stiles leaning over his locker, clearly waiting for who knows how long, he just turns and leaves. He can’t do this now. He’s not sure if it’s because he feels heartbroken or somewhat turned on too, but he’s pretty sure that he can’t deal with this properly. Like a mature person instead of a conflicted teenager. Even though he is a conflicted teenager.

He needs to clear his mind, first. Purposefully put his dick completely flaccid. And get emotionally ready to do some after class work on the project. 

Because if there’s something Derek’s pretty sure about, is that this is gonna be torture.

  
-

  
“You’re grumpier than usual”

They’re alone on Derek’s house for the afternoon. Derek looks up for his notebook, slowly chewing the cookie that he just happened to put on his mouth. One of his eyebrows goes up in what he supposes is a silent question but he might be wrong, since Stiles pretty much huffs and crosses his arms.

“I’m not working until you tell me what’s wrong”

Derek swallows and goes back to work, “Pushy”

Stiles sags over his chair and just looks at him without saying a word. Derek tries to keep his blush controlled, but he knows that at this point the tips of his ears are so red that he can get a job as a traffic sigh without any problem.

“You always seem to have something going on inside your head and I never get to know what it is,” Stiles speaks so low, it almost sounds like he's whispering it. And he's really trying not to think about him saying it in a more intimate concept. He’s weak enough already as it is.

“Well, that’s the thing with not having superpowers,” Derek’s smile get wider once he hears Stiles snort.

“You asshole, I’m being serious.”

Derek finally looks up from what he’s writing, half smiling and ready to do a Harry Potter joke, but he’s hit full force with the sight of Stiles and he isn’t even capable of breathing properly now. Stiles is looking at him intently and there’s even the hint of a splotchy blush on his cheeks. He’s biting his lower lip and Derek finds himself unable to look away from it. There’s a tentative touch on Derek’s hand, fingertips caressing his fingers and he’s getting a bit dizzy. “Derek, I--,” Stiles is somehow closer to him now, his face a mere inches from his own and Derek just breathes in. This is the best moment of his life and the worst. He quickly looks away, sensing how the mood in the room shifts into something awkward.

“We can’t,” he croaks out.

There’s silence for a little while and then a barely audible “okay” that makes everything inside Derek’s shatters and forces him to look up. Stiles seems rather broken, avoiding his gaze, up from his seat and gathering up his things. Derek’s suddenly aware of what this looks like, of what he did and he  _needs_  to make Stiles understand.

Derek takes hold of Stiles, stopping him, “We-- We can’t because--”

Stiles sheepishly smiles, looking at him and then looking away, “It’s fine, I got it wrong, I just need to go and die from embarrassment in a corner for a while, lick my wounded ego and we’ll forget this even happened--”

“No!,” Derek winces. He doesn’t even know where that yell came from, but he  _needs_  Stiles to understand. If yelling is required, so be it, “We can’t because-- because I’m not into casual. I-- I’ve seen you, and it’s totally okay that you do, but I can’t. Not with you. I really like you, I--,” he finally lets go of his grip on Stiles and sighs, deflating, “I’ve been crushing so hard on you for so long that it’s not even funny anymore. I can’t fool around and then go back to being your friend, I just--”

He hears more than the sees Stiles flopping down at his side again. “You thought I wanted this to be casual? Why would you think that?,” he sounds surprised, even shocked.

Derek groans and hides his face between his arms on the table. Who else would be able to say that they ruined the best moments of their life, confessed their feelings and now have to explain to their crush why doing casual sex is okay but not at all what he wants? Just him. This is something he’ll never live down.

“There are rumors going around. And I just thought that was it, but then I heard you. Scott in the bathroom, Lydia after class, and Danny today, I--,” the snort that erupts from Stiles throws him off so hard that he has to look up from his hiding. And yes, that’s Stiles laughing his life away. And Derek feels both blessed and terribly disturbed.

Once Stiles calms down, he looks at Derek and snorts again, “Those rumors, man. I wish they were true,” Derek’s ready to argue but Stiles just smiles wider and shakes his head, “Lyds, Scott and Danny are pretty gorgeous people, but I don’t have eyes for them. I did, for Lyds, long time ago. And Danny. Now I’m focused into someone else . A rather dorky, grumpy, with adorable bunny teeth someone else, for who I’ve been pining after as long as I can remember. So I decided that ditching my best friend and asking him to be my chemistry partner would be the very first step in my 10 years plan of wooing him”

Derek thought he was blushing before, but now his face is pretty much on fire. He's also completely in awe, to a point that his brain pretty much short circuits. “But then-- I heard--”

“I was showing them a game, see?,” Stiles pulls out his phone and, indeed, that’s a game. A rather dark and complicated looking game. “It’s a labyrinth sort of thing? With stuff like this,” he taps on a flower that leaks a sort of acid, “But now that I think of it, out of context it must have sounded really bad, but I swear that--”

He doesn’t finish that sentence. 

He doesn’t get to. 

Derek s swallows Stiles’ words and the surprised little sound that erupts from the back of his throat in a kiss. It’s not a deep one, more of a clumsy and sort of desperate clash of mouths that gets sweeter and slower until they stop. 

The blissed look on Stiles’ face, lips swollen, face flushed red and brown eyes glinting stirs something inside Derek. Something good. Something he wishes never stops.

“Thank fuck,” Stiles smiles, hooks his arms around Derek’s neck and gives him a small peck on his lips, “I can really get behind this”

Derek smiles openly, bunny teeth and all, cups his hands on Stiles’ face and then kisses back.

Yeah, he can get behind it too.  
  
  
-  
  
  
Derek's glad to say that he’s pretty sure that he didn’t fail chemistry, since Harris grumbled something intelligible when he handed back the work with a very red and very big A+ on top.

But he doesn’t mind any more about that.

He squeezes the hand he’s holding and smiles when that messy brown hair that he learned to spot everywhere now rests on his shoulder sort of sleepy.

Now, here, in the grass with Stiles at his side, he can say that maybe his luck isn’t so bad.  



End file.
